The first time that we met, he was standing with wife Taciana in a corner of the venue Adrenaline and looking slightly uncomfortable.
Earlier that night, then Singapore-based João Moreira had won the 2012 Longines International Jockeys Championship at Happy Valley, but here he was pretty much on his own while most of the attention was on the very attractive racing royalty in presenter Francesca Cumani and the legend that is Gai Waterhouse.
Thinking of what I could say to him, all that came out was something like, “You should try and come ride in Hong Kong. You could do very well”.
It had been a long night and these were still the very early days of the Happy Wednesday nights.
That night, I was still giddy over meeting Lady Gai Gai, ensuring that the ‘live’ music was going down well with the crowd, looking after some of our overseas guests and being bedazzled by Ms Cumani’s ability to pull off wearing flats. Her smile was something else.
While I worshipped at the feet of Fran, João Moreira and his wife quietly slipped away from the somewhat raucous revelry going on.
Apart from hearing that he had ridden all eight races at Kranji racecourse back in Singapore in September of 2013, nothing much else was heard about João until he suddenly arrived in Hong Kong in October as a Club jockey a few months after the 2013-14 season had started.
His move to Hong Kong was obviously something that had been in the works for a while and having run those eight winners was very good for any comms strategy.
At the time, we were seeing the tail end of the riding career of Douglas Whyte, Zac Purton was still considered something of a loose cannon to be a champion jockey whereas John Size’s long partnership with Whyte had completely broken down.
The Brazilian magic man walked into Douglas Whyte’s role with Size with ease and Jerry Greene from the Hong Kong Jockey Club given the job of working behind the scenes to ensure that he hit the ground running.
It didn’t take long for the João Moreira brand of magic to mesmerise local racing fans and the racing media. And why not? No one had seen anyone with his aerodynamic riding style. It was pure poetry in motion and after coming second in his first part season, he and John Size quickly became the new Dream Team as João Moreira took control and ownership of the next three consecutive Hong Kong jockey championship titles.
He could do no wrong, could almost walk on water and kept being voted The Most Popular Jockey In Hong Kong.
He also wore his heart on his sleeve and people were drawn to this vulnerability because, well, everybody cries. It’s therapeutic.
He was doing a great deal of riding for the powerful John Moore stable and was associated with some of the best horses in Hong Kong at that time- Moore’s brilliant Able Friend, and the ill-fated Rapper Dragon, the Tony Cruz trained Peniaphobia, Amber Sky, Designs On Rome, Military Attack, Hot King Prawn etc.
He was also somewhat in demand to ride in Australia and apart from coming second on Winx and riding a few winners here and there, there was nothing magical about those flying visits and he had his fair share of critics. So does Frankie Dettori. You can’t win ‘em all.
A fall earlier in the day prevented him from riding the Willie Mullins trained Thomas Hobson in the 2017 Melbourne Cup.
Even if there were more winners in Australia, one seriously doubts that João and his family would have enjoyed living in Australia, riding at tracks all over the place and paying those huge taxes on earnings.
At the end of the 2017-18 season came the bombshell that he was leaving to try his luck riding full time in Japan where he had built up quite a following.
But riding there on a full time basis is no easy task as it means having to first pass exams to read and write fluent Japanese. Guess he had crammed for these exams. This wasn’t something done on a whim.
He failed this hurdle and returned to Hong Kong as the stable jockey for John Size. He was very much needed by racing fans and the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Though a successful return, something just didn’t sit well with some. Particularly critical was Zac Purton who took to Twitter to air his grievances about what he saw as hypocrisy and offer his side of the story.
Of course, this was a very different city to what Hong Kong was to become and the tit for tat and tweetering politics dissipated until everything changed for the worse with the riots in 2019 and the racing fraternity then having to come to terms with life in the pandemic and being bubble people.
Brains were frazzled, some still are, and horse racing has continued, but with something missing- crowds on course and those good vibes that the Beach Boys once sang about.
This was racing with horses going around for the sake of keeping those turnover numbers ticking, but it sure wasn’t anything like the kumbaya moments of a couple of years earlier.
There’ve been reports of João struggling with stress as is most of Hong Kong. But mental health issues in a highly competitive environment like horse racing and where animals are involved, there’s a need to be mentally agile and make split second decisions. It’s no stroll in the park.
New priorities come into play and one does the best they can in the abnormal normal of it all while singing, “What’s it all about, Alfie?”
Each time I have interviewed João, they’ve been pretty deep conversations.
Not being a racing writer, these conversations covered much ground- early life in Brazil, family, children, life in lockdown mode, coping, mental stress and, maybe, the occasional question about the racing game- but which I prefer to leave to the professionals.
When watching him being interviewed on racing programmes, I smile to myself as here’s someone who makes not being fluent in English work for him. He can say anything and everything and say nothing at all.
My favourite “Joãoism” is being asked whether he was confident about the chances of one of his rides. “Why not?” would be the answer with that disarming smile.
My girlfriend, who’s a lawyer, would watch his reply and say, “I would hate to interrogate him. He’s very smart and beguiling.”
I like João Moreira very much. I really don’t care what anyone else has to say about him.
One hears what the local racing rumour mill grinds out as usual and says basically everything it’s been saying for over forty years and with some new conspiracy theories. It is what it was and that can’t be stopped. These conspiracy theories take a life of their own and they are bloody boring.
The Brazilian magic man has had success this and last season for Caspar Fownes, below, Frankie Lor and riding the occasional winners for John Size though they could hardly be called the Dream Team.
What’s next? What’s next for any for us? It’s about doing what makes us and those closest to us happy.
It’s about going out on a limb to make dreams come true.
If and when something is not working anymore, it’s knowing that as one door closes, a new one opens and doing whatever works best for you.
For João Moreira, I could be very wrong, but I very much doubt that he’s given up on riding the best equine talent around- in Japan.
